We are delighted to announce that Meadfleet have successfully reached the finals of the 2022 UK Housing Awards. Our Bee Friendly campaign is up for top prize in the Campaign of the Year award, recognising our efforts to create additional habitats for bees and other pollinators. In addition, we are also shortlisted for Innovator of Year, in recognition of our industry leading sustainable approach to open space management.
Meadfleet are committed to providing a sustainable open space management option for developers and residents and with the introduction of Biodiversity Net Gain this will be more crucial than ever. Our Bee Friendly initiative is a perfect example of how we create, enhance and monitor wildlife habitats on the open spaces we care for. It also provides enormous opportunities for us to engage our customers in the campaign and we’ve been thrilled by the response received. By working together, we can make residential developments more sustainable areas for nature to thrive.
Designed to create new habitats for bees and other pollinating insects, our bee friendly campaign includes the following ambitious targets:
- 30,000m2 of meadow to replace some of what has been lost in the UK (97% of all wildflower meadows since the 1930s)
- 1km of new hedgerow including native shrub and tree species to provide nectar in spring, berries in autumn and natural habitats for birds and mammals
- 70,000 new bulbs in a mix of species which provide nectar over many month
- Donating 2000 bee hotels to customers
Paul Cassidy, Ecology and Conservation Manager at Meadfleet said:
“At Meadfleet we are focussed on taking a responsible approach to open space management. With thousands of acres of open space in our care we are committed to maximising biodiverse habitat opportunities to support our nation’s wildlife. Our aim is to create a legacy of sustainable green spaces for our customers and future generations. We are delighted that our sustainable approach to open space management has been recognised in the UK Housing Awards, acknowledging our efforts to reduce our impact on the environment and increase important wildlife habitats.”
Meadfleet work closely with Buglife, the UK’s leading insect charity to help ensure the success of our Bee Friendly campaign. Below is a comment from Buglife’s Director of Fundraising and Communications, Paul Hetherington, in relation to our Bee Friendly campaign:
“It’s commendable to see a management company going above and beyond to help support vital pollinating insects by providing additional habitats and resources whilst engaging and educating their customers throughout the campaign ( . . . ) If only other management companies would take a leaf from the Meadfleet book we could be more confident of a sustainable future for our pollinators.”
The outputs of our work to enhance open spaces for biodiversity result in other key benefits. Meadows can play an important role in our battle against climate change as permanent grasslands hold approximately one third of the earth’s terrestrial carbon. As our climate changes and our winters become warmer and wetter meadows can act as a vital resource for storing water. Meadow vegetation and soils can hold rainwater and delay the runoff into streams and rivers. Creating additional meadow areas helps prevent the effects of climate change.
Meadfleet engage our customers and local communities in our activities via a range of communications, resources and giveaways including 1000’s of bee hotels and wildlife friendly seeds.
In taking a pro-active approach to managing open spaces on residential developments sustainably, we believe we can have a significant impact in supporting biodiversity and the environment. Providing developers, local authorities and landowners with a solution to the forthcoming management of Biodiversity Net Gain requirements and meeting the industries need for sustainable partnerships.
Last year, our Bee Friendly campaign was recognised by CIRIA, winning Pollinator of The Year in the Big Biodiversity Challenge Awards. It has also been shortlisted in Business Green Leaders Nature-Based Project of the Year 2022.
Bee Friendly – a success story
Since launching Bee Friendly in 2019, we’ve worked hard towards our targets. With leadership from our inhouse ecology team who are monitoring and adapting the project as we progress, we have sown over 14,000m2 of new wildflower meadows and planted 70,000 bulbs and over 600m of new hedgerow.
We have partnered with insect charity, Buglife, and are extremely grateful to them for their never-ending expertise and encouragement. They are well placed to advise us on the more technical aspects of various pollinator species and how best to provide habitats for them. As we create these new habitats, they are added to Buglife’s B-Lines database which maps ‘insect superhighways’ around the UK.
About the UK Housing Awards
Now in their 26th year the UK Housing Awards 2022 will celebrate the very best of UK Housing and organisation’s delivering high-quality homes and services in partnership with the communities they serve.
Entries come from across the UK from all sizes of organisation and are judged by a diverse panel of experts. The awards ceremony will take place on 25th November in Manchester.
https://ukhousingawards.co.uk/
About Meadfleet
Meadfleet is an award-winning, carbon neutral, management company founded over 25 years ago. Responsible for over 350 developments throughout England and Wales, we take a sustainable approach to open space management. Our Ecology and Conservation team ensure areas are managed to encourage biodiversity and we are partnered with leading insect charity Buglife, to help make the open spaces we care for more pollinator friendly. In 2021 we were awarded first place in the Pollinator category at CIRIA’s BIG Biodiversity Challenge Awards for their Bee Friendly campaign.
Appointed by housebuilders and local authorities and with a portfolio of more than 350 developments, all with a variety of requirements that include full infrastructure, complex sustainable urban drainage systems, biodiverse species habitat, street lighting, grass care, shrubbery, woodlands, wildflower meadows and play equipment, Meadfleet are the professional a nd sustainable solution to open space management.
Established in 1995, we are specialists in residential open space management and our aim is to protect and enhance these areas long into the future. We are committed to providing an excellent service and continually improving our environmental credentials, demonstrated by certification in BS EN ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management and BS EN ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management.
We are delighted to be a Carbon Neutral Company, the first in our sector to achieve this. As one of the most experienced and trusted open space management companies in the UK, we take our role seriously. We believe taking climate action is important for companies like Meadfleet and the housebuilders and local authorities we work with.
We’ve signed up to the United Nations (UN) Climate Neutral Now initiative, launched in 2015 to increase climate action. We have pledged to measure, reduce and offset our carbon emissions with carbon credits every year. What’s more, we’ve also chosen to obtain carbon offsetting credits, equivalent to more than our estimated total emissions since Meadfleet first began in 1995.
Meadfleet employ experienced regional managers to proactively manage open spaces and respond to customer queries. As voluntary members of The Property Ombudsman Scheme, we offer our customers access to free, independent redress should this be required.
At Meadfleet we’re passionate about keeping open spaces safe and attractive and also believe it’s important to manage and enhance areas for the benefit of wildlife. We run regular customer initiatives such as giveaways of wildlife friendly seeds, bee hotels and bird nesting boxes. Our Bee Friendly campaign was awarded top prize in the pollinator category at CIRIA’s Big Biodiversity Challenge awards.
Meadfleet’s in-house Ecology and Conservation Team is at the centre of our business culture, leading our approach to open space maintenance. With experience in creating and managing a wide variety of habitats we ensure areas are maintained sensitively and appropriately and oversee continual biodiversity improvements. We understand the additional requirements of Biodiversity Net Gain, both in relation to planning and the 30-year covenant. Meadfleet are uniquely placed in the market to provide the management and maintenance skills required to ensure delivery of the ongoing requirements of biodiversity net gain on residential schemes in perpetuity.
We know that a good quality, natural environment will enhance a local neighbourhood, improve well-being and contribute to improved house values.